The Traveling Book

Saturday, December 11, 2010

December 9: Party. What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010? Describe the people, music, food, drink, clothes, shenanigans.

I'm not generally a fan of the wedding as it incorporates two of my least favorite things on Earth...church and pantyhose.

Make no mistake, I'm all down for Love and Parties but, more often than not, weddings are crazy balls o' stress combined with dry cake and terrible mints mixed with cocktail nuts. Plus, with the divorce rate as high it is, there's usually a part of me pondering - typically during the trite/cliché reading - just how long the marriage will last.

When I met Sean and Monique though - going on 4 years ago now - I knew right away theirs would be a marriage that would last...

If Sean would ever get off his butt and, you know, like propose and stuff.

Which he totally finally did...in Las Vegas even. Go Sean!

You could just see it, feel it. They are truly peas and carrots, peanut butter and jelly, cheese and macaroni (although Sean hates cheese...WTF. I know, right?), gin and juice...wait....scratch that. Wrong post.

Anyway, what I mean to say is that they just FIT. Have always just fit together. And everyone who meets them, knows them, feels good in the presence of their love for one another. Such a rare, lovely gift! *sigh*

But honestly, I had no idea what to expect when Owen and I arrived at the wedding and reception venue...the backyard of a couple of their incredibly hot (I mean, uh, nothin') lovely friends.

The ceremony itself - like the two of them - was warm and unpretentious. While there was no dancin' shenanigans - on wheels or no - every moment was just soul satisfyingly lovely and so THEM. Mo's kids were included in the ceremony in the neatest way - by demonstrating their family handshake/hug thing-a-ma-jig they do (I think that was the moment I burst into happy tears) and the reading - oh the reading! - was given by Mo's sister, the lovely Elizabeth, and consisted, appropriately enough, of a compilation of all the awesome (and occasionally hysterical) Facebook status updates they'd posted over the years to one another. Which, if you know Sean and Mo, speaks volumes about the two of them *laughing*.

The ceremony ended with this image forever etched in my brain...an image that makes my heart sing for the two of them...

Is that not the face of a man who knows just exactly what a priceless gem he's got and the face of a woman who has everything she could have possibly wanted?

Yeah. *sigh*

And then...then! The Party began.

It was a perfect September Saturday evening. There were twinkling white string lights and Japanese lanterns hanging from the ginormous tent. There was the Steuben's truck serving up piles of deviled eggs, gravy cheese fries, fried chicken, and brisket. There were miniature cupcakes and the Little Man ice cream bicycle man.

And there was an open bar with liquor, beer, and wine galore!

There was dancing in the driveway to songs from a playlist Sean had spent weeks putting together - a playlist full o' 80's cheese and punk rock and ska and everything in between. There were tattooed ladies and grandmas dancing together.

Who were all so proud and filled with gladness and actual reverence for these two incredibly special people who'd actually, you know, found each other and figured out they should cherish each other...for all time.